Skittles Darkside

There’s a new flavor variety of Skittles out, they’re called Skittles Darkside.

There have been over a dozen Skittles varieties over the years, and still the original flavor set remains the same in the United States, with good reason. It’s a great variety. But that hasn’t stopped Mars, and now Wrigley’s the present owner, from introducing new items to the market every 18 months or so. Most quietly disappear, but some make the cut and hang around.

I learned of the existence of Skittles Darkside on The Impulsive Buy and over the weekend searched stores for them. The heart on the front led me to believe that this item would be shelved with the Valentine’s Day candy. I did eventually find it at Target, but not in the seasonal aisle (as that was still occupied by a stubborn amount of Christmas decorations) but on an endcap in the frozen food section also populated with clearance holiday blends of coffee.

The flavor set of the new mix is intriguing. The tagline of “The Other Side of the Rainbow” is a little ominous but fits with the quirky branding of Skittles. The flavors are blood orange, forbidden fruit, midnight lime, pomegranate and dark berry. The pomegranate and blood orange were the flavors that really captured my imagination.

Pomegranate (Dark Red) has a deep flavor with a good cherry and berry flavor. It’s tangy, but doesn’t have that tannic bite that real pomegranates do. If I wasn’t told this was pomegranate, I’d just say blackberry. Not that there’s anything wrong with a good blackberry.

Dark Berry (Purple) is a lovely color, just a little more red than the grape in the Fruits Skittles. The flavor is good, it’s well rounded with a floral and berry jam mix of notes and maybe a little blackcurrant.

Forbidden Fruit (Blue) tasted a bit like melon and currant to me. A fruit punch, but less generic.

Blood Orange (Coral) is not a deep red like the juice is. Instead the pieces are more of a dark salmon color. The flavor is nicely juicy, more of the juice flavor of a tangerine than the traditional orange. But it’s missing a note, an orange peel flavor to give it a true roundness. It’s also not that intense.

Midnight Lime is a puzzle. I don’t know what makes it midnight-ish. I have some Fruits Skittles around, so I tried the lime ones as well. They’re lime Skittles. There’s very little difference. The color is a bit more on the medium green side instead of bright light green. There may be less zest, but I wouldn’t say that’s a selling point.

It’s not the best mix I’ve had, partly because it’s lacking the versatility of pairings. The combinations don’t zing like the classic Fruits do and the Pomegranate and Dark Berry are too similar while the Blood Orange and Midnight Lime are too bland for something billed as Darkside. I’ll probably finish the bag, but it appears that the regular Fruits that I picked up for comparison will disappear first.

I liked the idea there are more Skittles flavor varieties to explore. I’d like to offer up a few more suggestions:

Skittles Soda Pop - root beer, cola, lemon-lime, ginger ale, and whatever that flavor Dr. Pepper is. Other possibilities would be Mt. Dew, Squirt (grapefruit), cherry cola, cream soda. Of all of my flavor mixes I’ve been mentioning, I think this one has the strongest shot. It would depend largely on whether they spend the money on licensing the soda names (like Jelly Belly does) or if they go generic. With generic names they can play more with flavors and of course keep more of the profit for themselves.

Caffeinated Skittles - these would be sold in small packages only to prevent caffeine overdose. Flavors might be coffee themed, or maybe more like energy drinks. One package would equal to about 100 mg of caffeine, this would mean that the taste would be affected too much. There would be an instant outcry from parents about the inappropriateness of the product for children ... gamers and college students would hoard them.

Skittles Citrus Mix - I’ve mentioned this before, it’s not like they’ve never existed before, there was a version in Australia for a few years that had Lemon, Mandarin, Pink Grapefruit, Lime, Orange. I would tweak that a bit and have Yuzu, Pink Grapefruit, Tangerine, Meyer Lemon and Kalamansi. Yeah, that’s going to happen.

Skittles Spicy - this is a wide open area. It could be something like the popular combination of Mango and Chili, or more like the classic spice jelly beans: spearmint, peppermint, cinnamon, licorice and clove. I predict these would be a huge failure.

Ooo! Looks interesting! I’ve never been a huge fan of the offshoot Skittles mixes, except the sour ones in the green bag. They came out about 10 years ago I think, because I remember someone selling them in high school to support a boy scout troop or something and I couldn’t help myself from buying a bag just about every day.

I don’t know - I could totally see Skittles Spicy as a thing. I just picked up a bag of Hot Tamales Tropical Heat - Mango, Pineapple, and Limon, with chile. I haven’t tried them yet, but they look promising!

Carnival mix was my favorite. It was like they made them just for me - all my favorite flavors in one bag. I love the soda idea. I tried these Darkside ones a few weeks ago, because I have to try every new Skittles flavor that comes out, even the disgusting chocolate ones. I really liked them. I really liked the lime as well. It was more of a subtle flavor than regular lime.

I’d love to see a Skittles Reds package - either all red or something like Flavoreds from Starburst.

Oh how I miss the Carnival Skittles! If I had known they would never return, I would have stockpiled them! I like your idea of soda or citrus Skittles.

I purchased the rather large bag of the dark side Skittles at Target this week and I ended up throwing them out. I was enticed by pomegranate and blood orange, but overall I just couldn’t see myself eating the entire bag. Even over an extended period of time.

Actualli hate to burst anyone’s bubble but the “midnight lime is the same lime that is in the original candy just a darker color. I recently purchased a bag of the original skittles and they have replaced the lime with green apple. When i emailed the company they wrote back telling me that they have made a permanent switch from lime to green apple but they were introducing a new darkside skittles with the same lime is a darker color with a new name.

Yeah… unfortunately they have no replaced lime in the original mix with a (I’m sure) disgusting green apple. Hopefully they keep these darkside skittles around because lime was my favorite out of the original 5 and if I can’t get them anymore I’m going to have to replace skittles as my favorite candy with something else.

EVERY freaking company these days is switching to green apple, is artificial lime flavoring super expensive or what? Lime is my favorite, MAKE LIME CANDY AGAIN PEOPLE!

I just got a pack of the Skittles Darkside….. and stumbled upon your site. Very good description of the flavours, I ate one of each of the candies while reading the flavour descriptions. My first choice is the Dark Berry…which does have a very blackcurrant taste…. yummy! The blood orange and the pomegranate seem like they would be good but really are a little lacking, but great job on the flavor descriptions!!!!!

Darkside Skittles, really people. In regards to the Trayvon Martin tragedy, I find this insensitive and disrespectful to his family and the nation. I don’t think this was the best name for this candy. I believe there are other ways to profit from the brand considering. I know I am not reading into this too deep. The Darkside Skittle candy should be recalled!!!

The Treyvon Martin incident happened long after Skittles Darkside was released. Long, long after. I suppose it’s enough for some people to use anything and everything as a means of acting self-righteous and sanctimonious. Hell, if you’re gonna try to stretch Skittles’ branding as a means of racism, I guess I can no longer wear baggy jeans or gold chains..because those are TOTALLY hallmarks of african-americans only, right?

Oh Tammy…let me guess. You are an overweight pasty white girl that’s in love with and black guy that will pay attention to you. Always trying to get knocked up just to keep him around. Sad sad sad Tammy. Go back to school. Or finish it which is more likely the case.

How can Skittles still claim on the label that these are the original fruits?
It’s false advertising.
The lime flavor was replaced by a horrible green apple flavor. Lime was awesome and refreshing. Starburst did the same with taking out lime years before why? maybe because some big excec. or CEO does not like lime?

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